Adjustable shelves are used in a refrigerator cabinet to enable a user to change the spacing between the shelves for various size articles to be supported thereon. In an economy refrigerator cabinet, the shelves are slidably supported on supports formed integral with each inner side liner of the refrigerator cabinet. To prevent the rear of the shelf from moving up or down after the shelf has its side bars resting on the shelf supports, one form of adjustable shelf has a hook at each rear corner of the shelf for retention beneath the bottom surface of the shelf support.
When shipping a refrigerator cabinet, the adjustable shelves must be prevented from vibrating or movement. Otherwise, the hooks, in particular, can pierce or gouge the liner.
During shipment, the refrigerator cabinet does not necessarily remain upright because it may be laid on its back or side. With the shelf having a hook at each rear corner, vibration of the hook during shipment would result in the hook piercing or gouging the liner irrespective of whether the refrigerator cabinet is upright, on its back, or on its side. Additionally, if the refrigerator is lying on its side, each side bar of the shelf also could pierce or gouge the liner during vibration.
Therefore, it is necessary to pack the shelves within the refrigerator cabinet so that they cannot vibrate during shipment of the refrigerator cabinet irrespective of whether the cabinet is upright, on its back, or on its side. Because the rear of the shelf cannot be fixed, the previously used tall corrugated post method for holding adjustable shelves in position cannot economically be utilized. The tall corrugated post method employs a triangular shaped corrugated post having its apex pointing toward the rear and wedged into the front of each shelf. This method requires the rear of each adjustable shelf to be retained in a mounting post, but this is not possible with an adjustable shelf having a hook at each rear corner as the only rear support for the shelf.
While an adhesive could be employed to hold each shelf in position during shipment, adhesive can come loose when subjected to ambient extremes. During shipment of a refrigerator cabinet, it can be subject to high or low ambient extremes so that the use of an adhesive to hold the shelf in position to prevent vibration of the shelf cannot be used.
The present invention overcomes the problems of the rear end of the shelf not being supported so that the tall corrugated post method is impractical of being used and the adhesive not adhering. Thus, the packing support of the present invention is capable of preventing vibration and motion of adjustable shelves of a refrigerator cabinet during shipment.